Outdoors in Niagara: Fishing near Johnson's Fudge, Boat House

Johnson's Fudge stand stood
just a few feet back on Lower River Road between Lewiston and Youngstown, but
how many knew Johnson's Boat House was on the river below?

I never knew that, and when
asking around not too many of the surviving old-timers didn't know it either.
Several years ago, river man and commercial fisherman Art King gave me a manila
folder with some old stuff in it before he passed away, and I kept it as a
treasure from Art. It had some old papers, old New York and Ontario fishing
licenses, a 1950 New York state fishing syllabus, and an old, undated,
Johnson's Fudge Company/Boat House six-page booklet. In there was even an old
Ontario beer rationing coupon book with eight coupons left and it is dated
"valid until Oct. 31, 1944," but that is another Niagara story for later.

A lot of old timers will
remember Johnson's Fudge stand, and if you don't, you're just not old enough to
remember some of the finest fudge anywhere. Here you could buy plain chocolate
fudge for 40 cents a pound! If you wanted to splurge, you could spend a little
more, and get chocolate/walnut for 50 cents a pound. It was sold in one-half
pound and one-pound boxes. When I was a youngster, my mom and dad would take
the family for what seemed like a long ride down Lower River Road to Youngstown
because you could see the river and scenery, and see where all the rich people
lived. Houses were huge and estates were humongous, something similar to today,
but only fewer of them back then.

The Johnson's six-page
booklet states they were established in 1917 and the phone number, if you
wanted to rent a boat from the boat house/marina, was "Telephone 58" You could
rent rowboats, outboard motor boats, and large party fishing boats, "with
licensed operators and guides." Also at Johnson's, according to the booklet,
you could buy bait, (in season) fishing tackle, gas and oil, boat equipment
plus new and used boats and motors. They also offered small boat winter storage
with boat and motor repairs.

Fishing on the Lower Niagara
was very good according to the booklet, and it outlines the major fish
available and the best times to catch them, where they spawn and when they
spawn. Perch are mentioned and the spawning migration from Lake Ontario occurs
about the middle of April, and "if the ice is not delayed by a late winter, the
water has warmed to a degree that will make the fish strike a bait by April
20." "This early fishing produces large catches of the big lake perch often
running over a pound in weight: Catches may run as high as 200 perch to the
boat on a favorable day." Remember this is in the 1940s and '50s.

Pike, meaning blue and
yellow pike, "abound in the Niagara River and offer excellent fishing from the
middle of June to the first of November or later." It continues, "While they
are present in the spring, being speared in large numbers in the rapids above
Lewiston, they usually don't take a hook until the middle of June." Drifting is
described as the method generally used by sportsmen, and it goes on to describe
how drifting is done and what rigging is used. Basically, the same as fishermen
use today, but the booklet describes use of hand lines or short fairly stiff
boat rod, 20 or 30 pound test, a 2 to 3 ounce sinker, and a triangle - a 3-way
swivel today. They talk about using the No. 3 or 4 small spinner with a yellow
fly, or yellow and red fly baited with a piece of worm.

Things have changed a little
today, the fact that we use much lighter rods, lighter lines and some lures.
The yellow fly talked about is still highly effective, and it was referred to
as the "yellow sally" back then, as it is today. You can learn all about the
yellow sally fly by visiting Outdoors Niagara. There is a section devoted to
these historic, and yet modern, fishing methods. Also, there is a whole section
on the demise of the blue pike, which disappeared in the late 1950s.

Today yellow pike can still
be caught in fair numbers, but the daily catch limit is five, and they have to
be at least 15 inches long. Back then, there were no limits of any kind, and
the booklet said, "catches from 40 to 100 pike per boat being common and from
100 to 200 not unusual." Back then, people caught blue and yellow pike for
sustenance, feeding families, big and small, neighbors and relatives. You could
find blue pike on just about any corner bar menu on a Friday night in Western
New York, where you could buy a pike dinner for under a dollar.

Lake Erie, at that time, was
shining with blue pike and the people in those communities there had the same
thing. You might think, wow, that is a lot of fish! But again, remember that
was back in the tough times and during the second World War when food, gas and
other things were rationed, money was tight, and people were heating their
homes with coal. I can jog some more memories here, about how, as kids, we even
had air raid practices. Remember those? Stories the younger ones today never
even heard of.

The late John Long Sr. wrote
a story about Lower River fishing, and how fishing the river paid for his
college education in the 1950s as his family wasn't in a position to help. Blue
pike and yellow pike drove a good portion of the economy around here.

The booklet goes on to
describe the fishing drifts and where they are located. A strange thing in the
publication is that the Johnson drift is never mentioned, even though it has
been one of the many favorite drifts all through the years. It describes
Jackson's drift "above Stranglers point on the Canadian side." It also says one
of the drifts is "Stella Niagara drift, from Stella Niagara to Clarks Point on
the American side."

Does anyone know where
Stranglers Point and Clarks Point are located? If you do, let me know. It also
mentions the Lighthouse Drift that I am assuming is the lighthouse at Fort
Niagara or maybe the small lighthouse on the Canadian side, downriver from Fort
George.

Other fish catches mentioned
in the booklet were "herring, white bass, black bass, sheep head, bullhead,
eels and mullet, all caught by the angler in some numbers." Sturgeon wasn't
mentioned, even though they were much sought after fish at the time too. There
was no mention of trout or salmon at all, although there were very early
stories written by Fr. Hennepin when he first arrived on the scene in the 1600s
because in his early writings, he mentioned about watching "silvery fish trying
to leap the great waterfall." They probably were Atlantic salmon, once native
to these parts.

There are a lot of stories
about Niagara River fishing in the old days, and at times I wish I could have
lived those adventures, and the stories I've heard from back then, I soaked up
like a dry sponge. My father never got into fishing, so I never learned these
things from him; back then, he was one of millions working for the war effort.

Today life is a little
easier for most, and that is why I always stress for fathers and mothers to get
these young kids of today out into the outdoors fishing, hunting, camping,
hiking or whatever. Get them out to enjoy the things we have, but take for
granted. Besides, you could learn a lot yourselves. After all, they may not
last forever.

For area fishing updates, be sure to visit www.OutdoorsNiagara.com. Readers can
contact this writer at [email protected]
if you have any additional information. Next week I'll tell you a little more
about bobcat sightings in Niagara.